Wednesday, October 26, 2016

What a Character!

Recently, Collin and I went to see a special sneak preview of Doctor Strange.
We're both big fans of the Marvel superheroes. Why? Because they don't
take themselves too seriously. There's a lot of action in their movies,
but also a healthy dose of humor. And their characters are people first,
superheroes second. Their movies have some of the best characterization
I've ever seen. Their heroes are flawed, men and women with
questionable pasts, dark sides and emotional issues.

Dr.
Stephen Strange is a brilliant, arrogant neurosurgeon who believes only
in himself and his skills as a surgeon--until a career-ending accident
puts him on a path to a world he could never have imagined, and a life
in which he could save millions rather than one life at a time.

In Captain America: Civil War,
the Avengers are divided when a tragic mistake made during a mission
causes the deaths of many civilians. It pits genius Tony Stark (Iron
Man) against Captain Steve Rogers (Captain America). Tony has daddy
issues--he never felt loved by his father, Howard. "My father never told
me he loved me, he never even told me he liked me," he says. By
contrast, Steve had a close friendship with Howard back in the '40s,
when Howard assisted Dr. Abraham Erskine in creating Captain America
using his super soldier serum for the US military. Tony remembers
hearing Howard talk about Steve over the years, and there's clear
resentment there. For Tony, it's akin to sibling rivalry. Steve had a
relationship with Tony's father that Tony never had. When Tony discovers
that Steve's best friend, Bucky Barnes--the brainwashed assassin Winter
Soldier--killed his father and mother twenty years ago, he realizes
their deaths weren't an accident, as Tony had been led to believe--and
that Steve knew the truth.

Tony
is a complex character. He's always been terrible at relationships,
even when he really wanted them to work. He was deeply loved by his
mother but felt rejected by his father--a fact that shaped all of his
interpersonal connections.

Actor Chris Pratt, who portrays Guardians of the Galaxy's
Peter Quill, describes the character as "emotionally stunted." Peter's
mother died when he was just a boy, and he never knew his father. Add to
that being abducted by aliens the night his mother died, and it makes
sense that Peter would miss the maturity train, so to speak. He grew up a
thief, part of a group of intergalactic pirates called Ravagers, but
something deep within him yearns to be the hero, the Star-Lord his
mother nicknamed him. It takes him twenty-six years to open the package
she gave him on her deathbed. She told him not to open it until she was
gone. Perhaps somewhere in his subconscious, he doesn't open it because
as long as he doesn't, she's not really gone?

Marvel's got some
well-developed villains as well--Loki, for example. The second son of
Odin, King of Asgard, he grew up in the shadow of his older brother,
Thor, heir to the throne. When he discovers he's not Odin and Frigga's
biological child, that Odin found him during a battle with the Frost
Giants, having been abandoned, left to die, Loki concludes this is why
Odin always favored Thor. Even when Loki does his worst, fans relate to
him. They get him. When an angry Odin tells him his birthright was to
die, the fans feel for Loki.Zemo
is another interesting bad guy. Having lost his entire family during
the Avengers' battle with Ultron, he seeks revenge. He knows he can't
destroy the Avengers, but with the right push, they can destroy each
other. "An empire destroyed from outside can be rebuilt," he says, "but
one that is destroyed from within is dead forever."

Throughout his
quest for revenge, Zemo is seen listening to a voicemail message. It
turns out to be the last message he received from his wife before her
death.

When I started writing, I was focused on plot. I was young
and lacked the life experience to understand the importance of
well-developed characters. One editor I knew used to call me "The Master
Plotter."Now, I prefer more character-driven stories.

I was actually looking for fully-developed characters, not cartoon characters. At least Dirty Harry fits the bill. I've seen all of the movies but can't remember if his background was ever explored.

Collin and I have been watching reruns of Sledge Hammer, a Dirty Harry spoof from the '80s...a trigger-happy cop who even scares the crap out of fellow cops, sleeps with his gun and has an "I Heart Violence" bumper sticker on his beat-up old car.